The Digital Home: Home Office

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If you're in the market for a new system, I strongly suggest you set a budget first and decide how to fill it second. It's easy to get caught up in the wonders of the latest technology and quickly get ahead of what you can actually spend.

When you've decided on a spending cap, go to a site that lets you customize your own computer such as Gateway or Dell and figure out what you can get for the money. You'll have your choice of several components, which include:

The processor or CPU. The top-of-the-line models are the AMD Athlon 64 FX line and the Intel Pentium 4, supporting Hyper-Threading technology chips. These can be pricey, so you might want to settle for a CPU a few notches down in terms of its rating; for example, get an Athlon 64 3400+ instead of a 4000+. If you're absolutely strapped for cash, you can go with a lower-cost, stripped-down AMD Sempron or Intel Celeron processor, but you'll most likely sacrifice some performance for the low price.

Memory. For Windows XP, you'll want a minimum of 512MB of RAM. Get a gigabyte if you can afford it.

Hard drive. Don't put too much stock in going with the newer standard, Serial ATA, over Ultra-DMA (also known as IDE); the noticeable, benchmarkable performance increase is negligible. Instead, get as much hard drive space as you possibly can. If you store digital media files, play games, edit movies and partake in other multimedia experiences, you'll need the storage space.

Optical drive. Get a DVD reader with some sort of burning capability, whether it's a DVD-+RW or at least a CD-RW. You'll probably want to make your own CDs, you might want to create DVDs if you're into video editing and, moreover, ROM burners are the most practical options for backing up data on home computers.

Graphics card. This affects how well your PC will run the latest games. The race is between ATI and Nvidia; ATI's Radeon X800 and Nvidia's GeForce 6800 are the best of the best. For more cost effective options, check out Nvidia's Radeon 9800 line and Nvidia's GeForce 6600 cards.

Sound card. Integrated audio isn't always optimal. Try to get a SoundBlaster Audigy 2 sound card from Creative Labs, or something from Philips's "Edge" line or a Turtle Beach card. Sound cards can support any number of speakers, from 4 satellites and a subwoofer (4.1) to 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 speaker systems!

Joel Durham Jr. has loved computers, technology, and gaming since he was a kid, first enjoying the wonders of the Atari 2600 and later indulging in the fabulous graphics of the Commodore 64. His lust for all things technical drove him to eventually seek employment: he landed a job at Computer Concepts, a Rochester-based PC consulting and repair firm, where the company president took Joel on as his apprentice. Within a year, Joel was running the service shop, installing networks for clients, and building systems...
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